1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication technology, and more particularly to a technology for realizing wireless communication between a parent station and a child station.
2. Description of the Related Art
Game apparatuses and game controllers have typically been connected with cables. In some game systems that have been proposed recently, however, game apparatuses and game controllers are connected by wireless means. The use of wireless game controllers makes it possible for users to freely play games from different positions.
The game systems require that operation input data be transmitted from a game controller to a game apparatus at a predetermined communication cycle so that the operation input data from the game controller is reflected in the screen output of the game. In particular, in order to reflect the operation input data in successive frame images, the operation input data must be transmitted from the game controller at intervals shorter than the frame periods of the game image. In addition, if a plurality of game controllers are participating in a game, it is also required that the operation input data from all the game controllers be transmitted to the game apparatus at the predetermined communication cycle.
Wireless communication can easily be affected by the surrounding environment as compared to wired communication, and has a relatively high possibility of failures in data transmission. When adopting wireless game controllers, it is therefore desirable to improve the reliability of the data transmission as much as possible. Moreover, since wireless game controllers run on batteries, it is also necessary to suppress their power consumption.